by Melanie Eversley, USA TODAY

by Melanie Eversley, USA TODAY

The Rev. Jesse Jackson is to be reunited Saturday with the Navy lieutenant and former hostage he helped free from Syrian captivity 30 years ago.

Jackson's talks with Syrian representatives and the subsequent release of then Navy Lt. (now retired Commander) Robert Goodman on Jan. 4, 1984, after a month of captivity was the first in a series of actions on the world stage that helped cast Jackson in the public eye as a diplomacy specialist. The Goodman release, which prompted President Reagan to invite Goodman and Jackson to the White House, also helped boost Jackson's run for the presidency. After late U.S. Rep. Shirley Chisolm, D-N.Y., Jackson was the second black American to launch a national campaign.

Jackson recalled during an interview this week with USA TODAY that the Reagan administration was skeptical upon learning he planned to negotiate for the release of Goodman, who was shot down while flying over Lebanon. Jackson led a delegation of ministers to the Middle East.

Jackson also said during the interview, "We felt that we had a moral obligation to go seek peace. I believe whenever a prisoner is released, it's always an opportunity to seek peace."

Goodman could not be reached, but based on a newspaper interview in the fall, he is retired from the military and owns a UPS store in Colorado Springs, Colo. The graduate of the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., told a reporter that where the country's relations with Syria today are concerned, the United States should proceed with caution. The rest, he is quoted as saying in The Gazette of Colorado Springs, Colo., that it is up to officials to decide.

A civil war has left more than 130,000 dead, ABC News reports the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights estimates. The violence initially started as a protest against the rule of President Bashar Assad, according to the Associated Press.

On Dec. 4, 1983, Goodman's plane was hit by a missile and he woke up on the ground with broken ribs and other injuries. His captors took him to a military installation in Damascus. On Dec. 29, 1983, Jackson traveled to Syria and returned to the United States with Goodman on Jan. 4, 1984.

Goodman told The Gazette that the experience does not monopolize his thoughts. "I still don't feel like I was doing anything superhuman," he told the news organization.

Jackson later went on to free Americans imprisoned in Cuba and other places. He believes he had success because leaders outside of the United States had a respect for the activists of the U.S. Civil Rights Movement.

"I think the Civil Rights Movement in America has moral authority in the world community," Jackson said. Our authority may not have an official office, but there's a certain moral authority that the Civil Rights Movement has."

Goodman and Jackson will meet and hold a press conference Saturday morning at the Chicago headquarters of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, a civil rights organization headed by Jackson.